ROLL OVER, "Fifty Shades of Grey," and make room for another kind of seduction, a peculiar and deeper kind of love affair - the kind that few would imagine. Even Rhinebeck author Roberta Seligman wasn't quite sure how her first novel would turn out, but she had a hunch it wouldn't be excessively carnal or sensational.

After all, it features her protagonist, Erica Stein, an independent, attractive, middle-aged woman who knows who she is and what she wants out of life. Erica Stein is in many ways the antithesis of the submissive Ana in "Fifty Shades."

Likewise, Chris Landis is not at all like the domineering Christian Grey in the blockbuster novel that's got women all over the globe panting. Erica and Chris are, instead, brought together out of need - a sort of domestic need, at least initially.

The onetime businesswoman remains single, though she has had numerous love affairs. Chris Landis, who is 12 years younger than Erica, is married with three children. Erica leaves behind her life in SoHo after work opportunities dry up, and she retreats to a country setting, which might seem familiar to Hudson Valley readers. That's because it takes place in Rhinebeck, Seligman's adopted home of 15 years.

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Erica's property in the rustic setting needs work, so she hires a freelance handyman.

Guess what happens next?

If you guessed hot and steamy sex scenes or uninhibited erotica, stick with "Fifty Shades." Instead, "The Seduction of Erica Stein" offers depth on so many levels.

"If you want to read about love, you should read my book," Seligman said. "If you want to read about lust, you should read 'Fifty Shades.'"

The book, released earlier this year by Epigraph Books, represents her first in the Erica Stein Trilogy.

In a lot of ways, Erica is the mirror of the author, an artist, poet and documentary filmmaker.

"People read it and think that it's me," Seligman said of her main character. "I started writing it as my story. Erica Stein just took over, and so I had to become Erica Stein. I was writing her story, not mine. I used snapshots of my experiences."

Seligman herself has a gripping story to tell. For many years, she lived in SoHo, where she carried on an artist's life and wrote poetry. She went back to school when she was in her 30s, pursuing studies in classical civilizations and religion at New York University.

Afterward, she became a documentary filmmaker and wrote, produced and directed "Soldier's Heart," based on her father, Mel, a World War II veteran who suffered from post traumatic stress disorder. The project took seven years to complete, with Seligman bringing her father back to the beachheads of Normandy, France, to film it.

The film has been screened at several locations, including the American Film and Video Festival, the Chicago International Film Festival and the International Film and Television Festival of New York. To this day, it receives rave reviews and still is in distribution, being shown at universities, veterans' associations and psychiatric societies nationwide.

Through it all, and even while she was in college, Seligman had kept a journal.

"It's something I've always been doing," she said. "It just was very natural for me to do that."

Out of that was born, "The Seduction of Erica Stein," something Seligman admits didn't come easily. "It was pretty grueling writing it, because I had to get into her skin in order to make it real," she said.

"I was very depressed for a long time while I was writing it, but I just kept doing it anyway," she added. When you really want to get deep, it becomes very isolating and lonely," she said.

Still, writing Erica Stein's story was what she needed to do.

"For me, it's the only place where I feel truly at one with myself," Seligman said. "When I'm writing, I am truly connected. I'm where I'm supposed to be. I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing."

Seligman laughs when her book is compared or contrasted to E.L. James' erotic best seller, "Fifty Shades of Grey."

"I couldn't read it anymore. It was such a turn-on," she said with amusement. "He (Christian Grey) just takes her physically, which I would do myself, given the opportunity."

In all seriousness, the sex she crafts between her two characters probably won't leave the reader as breathless. "There are two sex scenes in it, but I couldn't call them steamy," Seligman said. "Still, there's a twist. It's not a usual romance story because it's too real.

"The seduction is almost like a domestic seduction because everything is based on what he's doing for her on the house," she said. "He really teaches her how to survive in the country.

"It's an interesting love affair because there's a love between the two of them ... and they're not expressing it. They're not touching each other, but there's a deep love there."

Beyond that, there's even a lesson she wants her readers - both women and men - to take away from "The Seduction of Erica Stein."

"I know a lot of women who have been done in by men ... and they just give up. They don't want to begin again," she said. "My thing with Erica is that she couldn't give in. She had to make a real life for herself, a worthwhile life.

"I wanted to tell women not to fall victim to that. Erica wasn't a victim, and I wanted to make that very clear. It's a story about a very strong woman who makes her own way."

That being said, even Seligman has to admit that her womanizing character, Chris Landis, is hard to resist.

"I'll put it this way: When Clint Eastwood knocks on your door, you don't say 'no,' and that's what happened."